Time

I often hear people say they don't have the time to exercise or they don't have the time to eat healthy.  The truth is, we all have the same number of hours in our day.  What we choose to do with those hours - our priorities - are what makes the difference.  People have jobs and they have kids and they have aging parents or other matters that require a certain amount of time everyday...that is to be expected.  The thing is that if you make your health a priority, you make the time to fit it in.  I find that, more often than not, people are just lazy and full of excuses.  I'm not judging here...I actually think that a lot of people don't even realize they are being lazy or that they are making excuses.  Personally, I try to avoid both those habits, but every once in awhile they will sneak in.  And then I have to confront myself....never a fun task.  But I think that if you are going to get serious about taking control of you own health, you have to make the decision to do it, make the time, follow-through and make excuses a thing of the past.

In general I try to fit in a quick yoga practice before work, eat breakfast, go to work, exercise on my break (whenever that may be), go back to work, go to whatever yoga class or networking event I have scheduled, then come home.  Due to work and work related activites, I am usually out of the house from 7:30am-7:30/8:30pm.  Organization is key to this schedule.

Because of my sometimes hectic and uncontrollable work schedule, this organization can get totally out of whack. Workouts are cancelled or moved, lunch is skipped, yoga is missed, dinners with friends are cancelled. This happens fairly frequently. My goal is to try and recognize when things are going to get out of control and make a plan...sometimes I fail there as well. Regardless, I try to make scheduled meals and workouts a priority. My workouts are in my Outlook and in my Blackberry.

There does have to be some flexibility to this organization of time.  There are a few days a week that I do not have yoga or a networking event...in that case, if I do not have some other social commitment, I rush home to have dinner at the same time as Bill.  This happens maybe once or twice a week and I love the break from the contstant scheduled time.  On days when I have to be into work early or I cannot drag myself out of bed, I practice yoga after work and before dinner.  Last night was a rare occassion that I dragged out my yoga mat well after dinner and right before Top Chef.  There are also certain days or weeks (like, oh, this week) where I cannot fit in a run or a yoga class for the life of me...but I keep trying!

When I first started this blog, I could not imagine making time for one more thing.  But I find that once you start getting in the habit of organizing your time you discover you have way more of it than you originally thought.  Try it.